1990 VHS • Discovery of Witches 60 FPS

About

A documentary exploring contemporary Wicca and modern witchcraft, filmed primarily in Salem, Massachusetts, and presenting the subject from the perspective of practicing witches. The program opens with footage of a public ritual in Salem before introducing the core argument that modern witchcraft is a pre-Christian goddess-oriented nature religion with no connection to Satanism. A note at 04:06 introduces Salem as home to over 2,000 self-identified witches.

The program covers several connected areas. Practitioners identified as April and Laurie, both based in Salem, discuss their experiences with public stigma and advocacy through the Witches League, which works to counter negative media depictions. A historical section beginning at 24:04 traces the suppression of pre-Christian traditions following Constantine's establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire in 426 A.D., the gendered politics of the medieval Church, and the Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1486, which gave church authorities legal power to prosecute accused witches. The Salem witch trials of 1692 are covered through the Salem Witch Museum. A live psychic demonstration beginning at 29:49 features a practitioner who lowers her brain waves through a counting method and then provides a remote reading of an unknown individual's physical appearance and medical condition using visualization through the pineal gland.

The program closes with practitioners calling on mainstream religions to acknowledge that witches are not satanic and have existed since the beginning of recorded history.

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

The Vista Group®

Language

English

Subtitles

English

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed